Conservative and Republican Victory

August 2, 2010

My article, The Key to a Real Revolution, notes that the Republican Party has a real chance, because of the unusually good composition of the 2012 and 2014 Senate elections, to acquire something that Republicans have never had before: a filibuster-proof Senate. It is probable that Republicans will actually gain House seats in the 2012 elections, because Republican state government gains in 2010 may, for the first time in a very long time, mean that the redistricting process before the 2012 election will actually favor Republicans increasing their House numbers by twenty seats or more. If a conservative Republican wins the White House in 2012, the Republicans will be able – for the first time ever – to actually enact their agenda over the united opposition of every Democrat.

Does Republican victory mean conservative victory? Of course not! That is why it is so important for conservatives to vote in primary elections, attend party caucus meetings, and otherwise push the Republican Party, every day and in every way, toward limited government, traditional Judeo-Christian moral values, states’ rights, lower taxes and other conservative positions. That is why I strongly favored the independent conservative Doug Hoffman last year, even though that might have cost Republicans a seat in upstate New York.

But it is a big mistake to view Republicans and Democrats as ideological clones. Consider this startling fact: in every congressional delegation of every state of the union, every single Republican member of that state delegation is more conservative than every single Democrat member of that state delegation. The two keys to a real revolution are fairly straightforward: (1) select conservative candidates and conservative leaders in the Republican Party, and next (2) insure that Republicans have the muscle to enact in a brief period long-lasting and revolutionary changes.

Conservatives are doing an outstanding job in gaining strong control of the Republican Party. Not a single Republican House member supported the stimulus package or Obamacare. The primary season so far has been an almost unbroken string of more conservative Republicans pushing out less conservative Republicans. Rubio pushed Crist out of the Republican Party. Toomey did the same to Specter. Perry defeated Hutchison in Texas. Utah’s veteran Senator Bennett was denied re-nomination. While conservatives have not jelled around a presidential nominee yet, that is because until the dust of 2010 settles, no one can know who the strongest candidates will be.

Will Republicans win the muscle to pass laws over the objection of the entire Democrat Party? Only if every conservative grasps that this is the first chance since the New Deal that conservatives have had to roll back secular nanny-statism and that it may be the last chance too. Obamacare, for example, will only be repealed if Republicans can pass repealer laws without a single Democrat. If that is not done very quickly, then those constituencies that keep all federal boondoggles alive will get larger and larger.

Conservatives should also enact, in the flickering window of opportunity they may have, reforms which dramatically devolve control over education back to families and which encourage the rapid growth of small business, which is not only the economic dynamo of American enterprise, but also the only counterweight to the corporate fascism Obama is trying to force on America . There are several critical reforms which, if passed in a single session of Congress (which we had the numbers) would permanently move our republic back on the course of ordered liberty, modest governance, and moral society. It would be extraordinarily simple to prevent Democrats from repealing these reforms – while Republicans have never had this carte blanche power, Democrats have only held this sort of power for a few brief years, separated by several decades.

I know some conservatives do not trust the Republican Party. I too, think too many Republican elected officials are in this for the game, and not the principles. But we have no power to change the warped structure of federal power without using elected officials. We do not, and should not want, to live in a democracy. If conservatives control the Republican caucuses in Congress - if House and Senate Republican leaders are true conservatives – then conservatives can get their agenda passed (Witness how relatively inept Democrat leaders, because they controlled the White House and the leadership positions, passed very unpopular legislation.)

I care little for the private motives of particular elected officials, which are secrets known only to God, than I care for what they actually do, and if Republicans gain this temporary superpower, a million watchful, knowing conservative eyes will examine what these politicians actually do. If we can, for one brief Congress, enact a true conservative agenda, we will have won, very likely, forever. Worth the risk, I would say.